The China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement (FTA) took effect on Wednesday, the first day of 2025, with more than 95 percent of products traded between the two countries exempted from tariffs.
In east China's Shandong Province, one of the country's major exporters to the Maldives, a local electronics manufacturer expects its exports to the country to rise by 20 percent under the agreement.
"The agreement will improve our products' export competitiveness. We are now in negotiations with our Maldivian clients for further cooperation to expand our export scale. With tariff reductions and exemptions under the FTA, we anticipate a growth of approximately 20 percent in our exports throughout 2025," said Zhao Zhengcong, chief engineer of the company.
The agreement will benefit a wide range of products traded between the two countries including ship, steel, furniture, ceramics, vegetables and fruits from China, and seafood, nuts, wooden ornaments from the Maldives.
"After the China-Maldives FTA takes effect, over 70 percent of the tax items from the Maldives will be exempted from tariffs. Shandong's major beneficiary industries include plastic products, steel products, and automotive parts. Preliminary calculation suggests that in the first year after the agreement come into effect, Shandong enterprises will save approximately 8 million yuan in tariff cuts and exemptions from exports to the Maldives," said Bi Haijun, director of the tariff department of Qingdao Customs in Shandong.
China-Maldives free trade agreement takes effect
China-Maldives free trade agreement takes effect
International observers have welcomed the recent summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, calling deepened China-U.S. cooperation vital for global stability and positive development.
Xi concluded a three-day state visit to the United States on Friday, where he and Trump reaffirmed their commitment to a constructive, strategically stable relationship guided by fairness, reciprocity, and mutual respect.
In separate interviews with China Central Television, leaders and experts from around the world underscored that efforts to find a proper way for major countries to coexist not only benefit China and the U.S., but also inject much-needed stability and positive energy into global peace and development.
"And having that framework [for cooperation built on the constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability] rolled out between China and the U.S. is really important. We know that type of relationship works and it's successful. So we have to ensure that we see more cooperation between states on a global basis," said Catherine Ardagh, Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Ireland.
"After 11 years, President Xi is the first Chinese president to visit the United States of America. [For] the number of takeaways in this visit we see, as far as the outcomes, there are more than eight outcomes -- around eight outcomes are there. The world is looking toward this historic meeting," said Tahir Malik, head of the Department of International Relations, the National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad, Pakistan.
"So this mutual collaboration and respect between the United States and China sort of sets a standard for stability, growth and development. Certainly, the joint collaborations that the two presidents have set up for continual communication, I think, will be important," said Richard A. Black, the Schiller Institute's representative at the United Nations.
"Strong message of President Xi: The biggest investment of China is friendship, is cooperation, partnership, and not armed -- peaceful solutions for actually the world's problems," said Zijad Becirovic, director of International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies in Slovenia.
"President Xi Jinping's emphasis about sincerity and communication, coexistence as well as effective communication, is timely and I think we are heading for a stable world when these superpowers speak like that and continue coexisting," said Fabian Mutale, political analyst from Zambia.
Xi's visit was at the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump. It followed Trump's state visit to China back in May.
Xi’s U.S. visit boosts cooperation, world stability: international observers
